Catching up a Bit After That Depressing Rant (AND now Blogger is messing up the Fonts! Why????)

 AND now Blogger is messing up the Fonts! Why????

1. Mardi Gras Dinner Party

 A few weeks ago I was informed by a neighbor, Wendy, our favorite fag hag, and I use the term lovingly, that there is a "new" gay guy in town. Well, new since COVID practically ended any large social gatherings where established resident could meet newbies. Remember our town has a population of only about 450 residents and one gets to know many, if not on a personal level, then by site or reputation.

Wendy met him through their mutual involvement in the NM Gay Men's Chorus and he has apparently been involved in Opera in some way for years. Anyhow, Wendy said that W.R. was having a Mardi Gras dinner party and she volunteered me to make the King Cake and jambalaya! Last year I swore I would not be making King Cake again, but as Grandma used to say, "You don't know nothing yet!"

The actual colors were better than the photo and the plastic cup was to keep the plastic wrap from messing up the frosting. So my King Cake was not as elegant as it could have been,

So I somewhat reluctantly made a King Cake and jambalaya for the dinner party of someone who I'd never met. W.R. had invited a total of eight guests: Leon and me, Wendy and her husband, two other men who were somehow involved in opera or singing and two women who were friends of his who arrived with a cute little barking dog.

Both W.R. and one of the men were in the habit of talking as though they were projecting their voices to the very back row of the second balcony. The guest in particular was excruciatingly loud. I am not exaggerating. His husband was almost as loud. Probably in order to be heard over his husband's habitually deafening voice. W.R. and the two men dominated the conversation most of the evening and with the little dog barking, other guests having to occasionally shout trying to get a word in, and the woman yelling at her dog to stop barking, the decibel level in the room was off the charts. It was literally PAINFULL. I couldn't wait to leave.

I will say the food was excellent. W.R. is somewhat of a professional cook and he prepared turkey with andouille dressing, mini beef Wellingtons, green beans, sweet potatoes. My jambalaya was made with chicken, andouille and shrimp. W.R. is currently on a very strict diet so was not able to eat anything. The eight guests sat at the festively decorated table while W.R. stood in the kitchen encouraging guests to eat more.

We stayed for what seemed like an endless two and a half hours. Everyone left at about the same time and no one offered to help with the clean-up. I am hoping that W.R. will not try to "be my friend" for several reasons that I will sum up by saying he has some strange quirks and personal issues and I don't wish to be a therapist.

2. Miscellaneous

A few photos etc.

Made Cornetti recently - not easy

It's the Italian Version of Croissants

Pizza and Sausage Bread

View from Our Town

The BIG Snow of 2023

Another View - Jemez Mountains

Hoochaneesta Blvd - Our Main Street

The Rio Grande

One Corner of Dystopia

 

I'm Kind of a Mess

I wrote the following about a week ago when I was really a mess. Looking at it now, I guess it was understandable that I was an emotional wreck. Leon is doing quite well now and I am back to a reasonable equilibrium. 

  I don't know where these emotions are coming from, but I'm experiencing what feels like a hellish mixture of sadness, anger, resentment, impatience, dread, anxiety, grief, boredom, isolation, exhaustion and just fucking crappy.

This comes on the heel of hubby Leon's long anticipated ablation (for atrial fibrillation) which took place on the 15th of February.

    "Heart ablation surgery is a serious medical procedure to treat atrial fibrillation. A catheter is inserted into a vein in the groin and an electrode goes through the vein to the heart.  It uses small burns or freezes to cause some scarring on the inside of the heart to help break up the electrical signals that cause irregular heartbeats. This can help the heart maintain a normal heart rhythm and reduce the risk of stroke."

    Of course the heart surgeon, a week or so before the procedure, had to recite the obligatory list of things that could possibly go wrong, including death. Leon was understandably nervous, as was I. My role, as the loving spouse, was to remain positive, strong, supportive and all that. I was there while the medical staff hooked him up with IVs and ports and electrodes and wires. It was all I could do to hold back tears, but I think Leon caught me once when he glanced up. I am not one who hides emotions easily.

(I'm not even going to talk about the feelings we both had about the outrageous hospital quote and the insurance co-pay, believe me. I won't even go THERE and Leon has excellent health insurance. Really?)

    I held his hand until they wheeled him into the OR. Later he reported that he relaxed once he observed how professional and efficient and dedicated the OR staff carried on. Not knowing any better, I remained a bit shook up.

    The procedure took about three hours and then he had to lie on his back for three hours before he could sit up and have some food. I was there when he came out of the OR. The nurse brought in his lunch and then took him for a walk around the nurses station. Afterwards he was given all the discharge papers, instructions and allowed to go home. He has to be out of work for a week. 

   He says that he is feeling physically better now. And that he just didn't realize how the A-Fib was draining his energy, even while doing lots of physical work as a Park Ranger out in the wilderness.

    As for me, I think the pent-up stress and emotional restraint I maintained is now coming into its own. I am, in normal times, an emotional smorgasbord with existential tendencies. Right now, just more intense. 

    Like everyone else, we've lived through the social isolation of COVID. I've been trying to recover from a bad knee since August of 2021. "complex tear of the body and posterior horn of the medial meniscus…displaced meniscal tissue into the medial gutter…complex tear of the body of the lateral meniscus…full thickness cartilage loss over the central weight bearing aspect of the medial condyle and medial tibial plateau…cartilage defects…small cartilage fissures;"

    It has been an up and down journey with physical therapy, cortisone injections and home exercises. The orthopedic doc says at some point I may require a knee replacement - not the kind of vacation I've been  dreaming of.

    And for a little added stress, we are splitting the cost of Leon's mother's Assisted Living expenses with his brother and sister. And paying for a lot of incidentals that she says she cannot live without. She should be on Medicaid but that's another story. 

    And as you all know, the cost of everything has gone UP. I was never one to worry about money as I have never believed in purchasing anything I cannot pay for (except perhaps a house or auto - but I am always eager to pay off a loan before it's due). Being frugal has paid off and we have lived not wanting for necessities and having a few niceties to boot. But now I am beginning to worry some.

    I'll be 75 next month and the I imagine a future with ME in a nursing home and Leon having to foot the bill. These are the facts of life and I am doing my best to keep that perspective...but I do see our savings dwindling and with them any chance of that trip or vacation that we've fantasized about.

    Living in New Mexico (and I've called it the Land of Entrapment many times) is sometimes pleasant, sometimes enjoyable, sometimes wacky, sometimes scary, sometimes boring, sometimes suffocating. Probably like anywhere else I might live. But it is so far from family and friends from our past life. Leon has a job, a job he likes, but he can't even think of retiring until I'm 79. 

    I'm not sure what shape I'll be in at 79 or 80, if I'm even still around by then.

    These are the thoughts I ruminate about. The emotions I carry.

  

   

 

Happy St. Valentine Day

 

Some of My Favorite Photos - Part Four:

 Here is a mix of photos, many have been posted on the Blog before. No particular theme, but our beloved Benni appears in several of these.

 

Benni with that Expression of "What's going on?"

Ropes on the Dock - Provincetown

Pismo Beach California

Pismo - Or is it the Moon?

Pismo

My Peach Tree

Chicks in the Window - Provincetown

No Place Like Provincetown

Juniper New Mexico

Lake "You Fish On Your Side I Fish On MY Side Nobody Fishes In The Middle", Massachusetts

Snooze

White Party Provincetown

Puppy Benni

Peony Farm Connecticut

Pensive

“Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up the o-er wrought heart and bids it break.” Shakespeare

GWB

George Washington Bridge

Everywhere - Anywhere, New Mexcio

White Party Provincetown

Probably Closer to "The Real Me" Than Anything

 

Comments on this Blog

 Just a heads up.  I have not been getting notification via email when there is a comment awaiting moderation. Just discovered 4 comments in that state of limbo. All approved. Please be patient while I adjust to or fix the issue.

A Post Especially for Mitchell

 Ok, I cannot compete with Mitchell of Moving With Mitchell fame when it comes to blog posts, especially one about food or desserts or restaurants or cafés. Nevertheless I am posting this for Mitchell because I thought of him when Hubby Leon and I had lunch at Cafe Pasqual's in Santa Fe on Thursday afternoon. 

Leon generally works Monday through Friday, has a one hour commute each way to work in Albuquerque and so it is not often we have an opportunity for a weekday lunch date. But he was able to work from home on Thursday morning and took the afternoon off for a doctor appointment and lunch in town.

After his noon appointment and my visit to the eye doctor to order a pair of prescription sunglasses (so as to get Leon's opinion on the correct frames) we decided to have lunch at Cafe Pasqual's. It's a small restaurant we'd never been to and probably never would have gone to if not for a gift certificate that my brother Mike and sister-in-law Claire gave us for Christmas. As mike and Claire live in Connecticut, I imagine he looked on line for restaurants in Santa Fe. I'm not sure how or why he chose this particular restaurant. Maybe he liked the wolf or coyote logo.

 

 

Anyway, it was a very generous $100 gift certificate. The note from my brother said "I know it's not much but it might buy you lunch"

 

I looked up Cafe Pasqual's on the internet and, well, judging from their menu, I figured lunch would be the best bet with maybe a few dollars left to spend in their gift shop. One hundred dollars is an amount we never in our wildest imagination would ever think of spending for a meal - anywhere.

The Cafe is very compact. It is not what one would call "posh" rather it is very Santa Fe shabby chic if I had to give it a description. Huge ristras of chili peppers hanging from the ceiling and strings of those Mexican cut-out flags, papel picado, strung across the room. 

 It's a small room with a, I guess you might call it a mezzanine...a half dozen tables up a few steps from the main dining area which probably had at most ten tables. I think the sign said "Seating capacity 47"

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode

 We had to wait for a table. 

I was looking up at the mezzanine and said to Leon, "That looks like Wendy." He got up to get a better look and as she turned around toward us I said, "That is Wendy."

A surprise and a coincidence, for sure. Wendy is a neighbor of ours in the tiny village where we live, population 500 plus or minus. Wendy was probably the first person to welcome us when we moved to Cochiti Lake... somehow scoping us out as we were unpacking the van and moving furniture and greeting us with hugs and excitement, "Oh, new gays in the neighborhood!" 

And Wendy is also the ONLY woman in the New Mexico Gay Men's Chorus. She was having lunch with a colleague and we all dished a bit before Leon and I got seated.

I said, now I feel like a real Santa Fean...running into a friend at a hoity-toity Santa Fe restaurant!

Finally, we were seated and looked through the menus for breakfast and lunch, both served till 3pm. I decided on the

 SOFT POLENTA WITH SPINACH & BALSAMIC GRILLED PORTOBELLOS ~ House-made Heirloom Tomato Sauce / Mascarpone / Blizzard of Fresh Parmesan Reggiano 19. Add Talus Wind Ranch Spicy Pork Sausage Meatballs 6.

 Organic Lemonade 5.50

 I didn't point out to the waiter that "Parmesan Reggiano" is a horrible mixture of terms. It's either Parmesan or it's Parmigiano Reggiano. But I did say to the waiter, "I'm very curious to see what a "BLIZZARD" of Parmesan Reggiano will look like. He was amused but non-committal. 

Leon ordered the

*HOT PASTRAMI SANDWICH, WOOD-SMOKED ON TOASTED RYE ~ Melted Jack / Roasted Green Chile Strips / White Wine Sauerkraut 21.

 Ginger Pineapple Juice 6.50

 My lunch arrived with something less than a BLIZZARD of cheese, more like seven or eight flakes of snow. It was an interesting dish, good, not spectacular, not bad. The polenta was soft and perhaps more like a cross between grits and creamed corn with an unusual spice, good spinach and a large portobello cap. The sausage meatballs were...basically Italian sausage without the casing. The dish was satisfying, filling, tasty.

Leon said his pastrami was good, better than the "New York Deli" on Rodeo Road. He even liked the green chile strips.

We had already dug in before I thought to take a photo. Mitchell would never be so thoughtless.

 We decided to splurge as this would be lunch and dinner. So dessert was next. I got the

Boca Negra Dark Chocolate Torte / Bourbon White Chocolate Cream ~ Julia Childs 13.

I took a photo before doing any damage

Leon ordered 

Warm Apple Turnover / Rum Ice Cream / Dominique Dark Rum Sauce 13.

 I thought about ordering a coffee or espresso for 7.5 but decided that the chocolate was plenty of calories and caffeine. We will be sure to serve ice cream in Martini glasses from now on, however. Our guests will be impressed and think we are real Santa Fe sophisticates. 

So the check, with tax came to $92 and some change. We were given change back from the $100 gift and we left a $25 tip. So lunch came to a bit over $117!!! OMG. What a splurge. 

But we laughed and cajoled with Wendy and with each other and enjoyed the craziness of having lunch in a hoity-toity Santa Fe restaurant that we will likely never set foot in again.

It was a fun, and dare I say "romantic" lunch treat, even without a BLIZZARD of Parmesan Reggiano.

P.S. Mitchell, Sorry I didn't get photos of us or of Wendy and her friend. And for not taking a photo of our meals before we started eating. I'm just not that conscientious about such things. Maybe I'll do better next time.

Addendum: After my brother read the post he sent me this email:

Glad you enjoyed lunch, but here's the thing...

The gift card was only supposed to be $50, and they only billed me $50. So, I guess you made out pretty well. After reading your review, I probably should have sent you a $100 card after all. I didn't think $50 was quite enough for lunch, and I wanted to make it $75, but they were out of $25 cards - it was either $50 or $100. Maybe they ran out of the $50s and said What the heck, and sent what they had left?

Anyway, I'm glad you guys had a nice lunch.

Mike